R.E.M. will never reunite, says Peter Buck

28 November 2022, 12:16

The guitarist claims that the band got so big in the 90s and 00s that he'd rather "not go back to it".

Peter Buck has said he'd never return to R.E.M.

The guitarist was a co-founder of the Athens, Georgia band from its beginnings in 1980 until its demise in 2011, but he struggled to get much enjoyment out of it once they got “really big”.

He told Classic Rock magazine: “When the non-musical stuff became so intense, it took away some of the pleasure for me.

“It’s just the stuff where you kind of wake up and go, ‘God, I don’t really want to have my picture taken today. And I don’t really want to pretend to be an actor in some video where I can’t act.’”

R.E.M. - Losing My Religion (Official Music Video)

Buck did however claim there were many moments during R.E.M.'s biggest years that he did enjou.

Peter added: “I loved playing Glastonbury and playing in front of lots of people and selling multiple copies of records, but it was never the reason I did it.

“And when we got to the point where we decided that it was the end, it felt like a great shared experience.

“I wouldn’t change it, but I’m not going to go back to it.”

R.E.M. started out as an American indie band, signing to major label Warner Brothers in 1988. Their albums Out Of Time (1991) and Automatic For The People (1992) have both sold more than 18 million copies worldwide.

R.E.M. on Automatic For The People - track by track

Buck thinks that the band called it a day at just the right time, after the release of 2011's Collapse Into Now.

He explained: “The last two records were really strong.

“But I just felt like no matter how good our last record was, it wasn’t really our time anymore.

“And that’s fair, and I understand that.

“And we were lucky. The last tour we did, we were still playing to huge amounts of people.

“We went to South America, which was like being The Beatles.

“So everyone felt like, ‘Yeah, this is a really good stopping point.”